


The Day the Trollhunters Went Public

by FabiusMaximus



Series: MCU Trollhunters [2]
Category: MCU, Trollhunters
Genre: Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27815128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FabiusMaximus/pseuds/FabiusMaximus
Summary: It's been a year since Gunmar's fall, and the Trollhunters have been working behind the scenes, protecting Arcadia from threats both mundane and mystic. But you can't stay in the shadows forever... And some powers are quite interested in gaining control of the Trollhunters...
Relationships: Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez
Series: MCU Trollhunters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035258
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

“Remember, Shadow is only one of the powers a mage may use. You have mastered the staff, and that aligns you with shadow-sorcery, but to limit yourself to that is to be a poor wizard and a poor _apprentice_.” Angor smiled down at Claire.

Claire didn’t gulp, not after a year. Angor was merely reminding her that a poor apprentice would have people wondering if she had a poor _master_.

And Angor would never tolerate being considered poor at anything. Fortunately, Claire agreed. She’d almost died because using her powers had exhausted her. So she would take everything Angor gave her, and _get_ better.

She stared at the books. Angor said nothing, merely looking down at his phone.

 _It’s weird…_ Angor was one of the older trolls, yet he’d taken to technology like well, a duck to water. There were other trolls like that—Claire had been surprised to find out that distance learning courses weren’t simply attended by humans, but she’d always figured that Angor would be, well, a traditionalist.

When she’d asked him, he’d looked at her like she was an idiot. “When I last slumbered, humans feared the night—you hid _under your beds_ when the thunder roared. Today, you banish the night with a gesture and know the truth behind the thunder, even as you have grown to numberless legions. We are at peace, but a wise hunter does not ignore the changes in his surroundings.”

He was probably telling the truth, but Claire bet that Angor was also something of a tech nerd. When he really annoyed her, she cheered herself up by imagining Angor at one of Tony Stark’s parties with a fizzy drink with an umbrella in it.

“Okay,” Claire finally said. “I have it…” She put out her hand, closed her eyes and recited the spell in her mind. Nothing happened. She bit her lip and recited the spell _aloud._ There was a pulling sensation and suddenly the mass of dirt that she’d collected was gathering into a humanoid form. “I did it!” Claire said, the golem walking around. “I—” The room seemed to sway and she fell back as the golem fell to pieces.

“What happened?” Angor asked. He knew but Claire was used to this.

“I didn’t have enough power,” she said.

“Yes. You could put more power into it, by sacrificing your blood or flesh, or by using something that _remembers_.” Angor paused. “Earth doesn’t. A skeleton would, which is why so many human mages use them.”

Claire shivered. That wouldn’t be her.

“I…” She paused. “What about bags of blood. From a blood bank?”

“And what good would that be? This is about symbology and essence, and blood from one of your ‘blood banks’ would be deficient in both. You give of your body because it is a way to pay the _spiritual_ price.”

Claire sighed. _It couldn’t be easy._

“But that was a well put question, Apprentice. Only a fool does not try to make their life easier.”

“I—” Claire’s phone alarm went off. “It’s morning already!?” She looked around. “We have the field trip today!”

Angor chuckled. “You become absorbed in your lore. I have seen it before, but the time was well spent. Enjoy your… Trip of fields.”

Claire nodded. “Thanks.” _And Angor Rot telling me to have fun isn’t unusual, not at all._

But then, this was Angor with his soul and everything Claire had read about that forbidden art made her want, very dearly, to one day find Morgana and drag her right to Odin. Thor had promised that his father would open up his calender for such a meeting.

But with that, Claire grabbed her bag and held her staff forth, opening a gateway. Today was just a fun trip, no stress at all!


	2. A Perfectly Ordinary Field Trip: Not!

_Why can’t I have a normal field trip?_ Jim thought as he forged through the corridor, nearly blinded by smoke and ash. It had been nearly a _year_ since the battle of Trollmarket, and things had been…

Well, really great. He and Claire were doing fine, Toby and Darcy were joined at the hip, the closest he’d come to a fight in the last month was a bunch of revolutionary gnomes, and he’d managed to talk them down to accepting a tribute of socks in return for keeping Trollmarket clean—even _Vendel_ tended to smile. They’d had a few adventures up top, mostly involving small-time crooks, natural disasters (and some alien bounty hunters), but well, Jim had no complaints.

Enrique had even said some of his first words, and called Jim by his name!

And now, here they were, in an apartment building that had gone up like a bomb while they were at the museum. Senor Uhl had covered for them, and now Jim, Claire and Toby were trying to get people out before everything came down.

“Bottom floors are clear, Jim,” Claire’s voice crackled in his Starktech earpiece.

“There were people stuck in the stairwells,” Toby said. “Someone chained the emergency exits shut. So not awesomesauce.”

“You need help?”

“Nah, that’s what the hammer is for,” Toby said. “But Jim, some of them say that there’s people up above—could be they got out of another door, but…”

“I understand,” Jim said. “Claire can you try to damp this down?”

“I can’t hit it with a surge, it might collapse… Wait a minute, Me and Angor were practicing…” Her voice faded out, and suddenly, a head-sized portal appeared in front of Jim, and from it, blueish-white flames erupted.

 _Cold_ flames, and wherever they hit the smoke, the smoke seemed to vanish, while the fire itself had the heat sucked out of it.

“I can’t do this for long,” Claire said, her voice strained.

“I understand. Toby, try and get a complete headcount.”

“Gotcha.”

Jim’s armor didn’t have the technological flourishes of Tony’s “apology suits” but it had magic that grew with the wearer, and Jim had been practicing. He could easily see through the smoke as he moved through the mist, heading up to the top floor. Most of the doors were open. But one at the end of the corridor wasn’t.

 _Gone, sleeping, hiding?_ Jim didn’t care. A touch showed there was no fire behind it, and a kick disposed of the deadbolt. Jim entered the room. There was a bed in the living room, made up. Everything looked…

 _Shit_. A smaller bed in the other room toys around it. Unmade. Jim dropped to his knees. Nobody under the bed, but…

The door to the bathroom was open. Jim flew there, and yes, there was a kid curled up in the bathtub. Not moving.

Shit.

“Claire, I need a portal, no—”

The entire _building_ rocked from the explosion. Chunks of the room were falling apart, fire was erupting through the floor, overwhelming Claire’s spell…

No time for a portal. Jim picked up the child, holding her to his chest with one arm and called daylight to his hand, then charged through the bedroom, slashing at the exterior wall as fire roared in from the open door behind him.

And then he was flying through the air, the building behind him, the ground swiftly coming up… Only to be held in a glowing purple field, and lightly deposited to the ground.

Jim dismissed his helmet, rolling the girl onto her back. She wasn’t breathing.

 _Check the airways, start CPR for a child._ The no-nonsense SHIELD trainer at their “summer camp” had been right. This was something he was going to need.

Portals opened up, and Claire and Toby were there. Claire turned and raised her staff, and portals appeared over the now evacuated (not to mentioned collapsed and on fire) building, a torrent of water falling onto it.

“I don’t know what caused that,” Claire muttered. “Something went off like a bomb.”

“Fire department is here. Jim, need me to spot you?” Jim nodded and then he and Toby exchanged places, Toby pulling his helmet back and starting to breathe for the little girl. A few moments later, she started coughing and gasping.

“I, my house! Mama!” she cried out.

“It’s okay,” Jim said. “Your Mama’s okay.” Then there were firefighters moving forward, as Jim and Toby got out of their way.

“I—”

“Is that Jim? No way!”

That was Mary’s voice. Jim blinked. _Right, my helmet is off._ Thing is, he couldn’t even be angry—the kid came first. Even a few seconds would have been unacceptable.

“Wow, Jim is lively today!” Aja.

“Toby? My boyfriend is a superhero?”

“Well, at least I don’t—” Jim blinked. Claire had retracted her helmet. “Claire, what are you—”

“Jim and Toby are revealed to be part of the Arcadia three.” Claire shook her head. “How long do you think it’s going to take to realize that I’m the only female member?”

* * *

“Fury, we have a situation,” Maria Hill said.

“What is it?” Fury asked.

Maria just put the page up on his screen.

The Arcadia Observer.

ARCADIA THREE REVEALED TO BE LOCAL TEENS.

“Damn. It.”


	3. Reactions and Plots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friends and foes alike respond to the events in Arcadia.

“…For the last year, the Arcadia Three have been a mystery, appearing on several occasions to assist in criminal cases, or more commonly to provide help during emergencies.” The big screen set up in the room showed a dozen clips. A figure in purplish armor raising a staff and sending a flood of sea water spraying out of black portals, dousing a roaring firestorm that had been bearing down on a housing development, while a shorter figure smashed out a fire break with a hammer. Another clip showed a silver armored figure cutting and kicking falling trees to the side of the road, his voice unheard in the clip, but using his sword to direct families into their cars, keeping order while his friends blocked the fire.

“In another case, the Arcadia Oaks Central Bank was saved from a robbery by their intervention.” A grainy image, showing armed robbers threatening a crowd, then vanishing into portals.

“But today, in a shocking reveal, the Arcadia Three were shown to be three of our teen-aged residents, James Lake Jr. Toby Domzalski, and the daughter of Councilwoman Ophelia Nunez, Claire Maria Nunez. Reactions have been mixed.”

“Those heroes saved my daughter!” The woman was crying. “Bless them, bless them!”

“So what’s going to happen when someone tells them to stop loitering in the mall?” A well dressed man said. “Kids need to be under control, and the first step is to take away their toys!”

“I mean, it’s nice that they helped, and they’re close friends with my daughter,” An Asian woman, labeled as June Wang said. “But we’ve seen what happened to Tony Stark with that terrible Mandarin business. Now that they’ve been revealed, what if someone attacks the school? What if someone already _has_ attacked the school, because nobody ever explained how a lab accident could cause everyone to have waking nightmares.”

The scene cut to the Arcadia PD’s briefing room. “I would like everyone to understand,” a man identified as Detective Scott said, “that the Arcadia Three, whoever they are, have never engaged in acts of vigilantism. They have intervened only when criminal acts are already underway, and their actions have been fully within the standards set for the use of force in defense of themselves or others, as established by California law. While I am not at liberty to speak as to any specific cases, I will say that on several occasions, parties claiming to be the Arcadia Three have contacted us about ongoing or possible criminal activity, allowing the police to handle the affair rather than engaging in vigilante actions.”

“Detective Scott! What do you say about the fact that they are minors?”

“I am not at liberty to speak about any current investigations the Department may be engaged in. Thank you.” With that the screen went off, and Fury turned to the others in the room.

“Lasted longer than I thought it would,” Fury said. “Oh, Jim didn’t lie—they didn’t look for trouble but…”

“If it came calling, they weren’t about to run,” Steve said. “What now?”

“The locals love them,” Bruce said.

“The locals loved them when they were figures of mystery. Now they’re teenagers who have to worry about breaking Arcadia’s curfew laws.” Natasha shook her head. “Especially given…”

“Trolls,” Steve said. “The more attention they get, the bigger the chance the secret comes out.”

“And we’re still in the process of planning on how to handle it,” Fury said. He sighed. “I’d hope to have given them a little more time, but well, if they’re revealed…”

“The Trollhunters will be front page news, everywhere.” Natasha said. “None of them will like that. Not everybody is Tony.”

“Well, they may not have a choice,” Steve said. “What’s the plan, Nick?”

“I’ll be sending some help to our man on the scene.” Fury frowned. Uhl might end up needing to be relocated as well, especially if they had to reveal that he’d been their SHIELD point of contact.

“I need you here, Rodgers,” Fury finally said. “Romanov, you’ll take point. Make certain to keep the trolls outof this.”

“Understood.”

“And if we can’t?” Bruce asked.

“Than we may have a very big problem.”

* * *

“They’re undisciplined.”

“Really?” Secretary Pierce said, looking over to his companion.

“If they were that interested in keeping the secret, they should have waited until they could have disguised themselves.”

“They probably prioritized the girl over their identity.”

“Like I said, undisciplined. The time it would have taken to get her behind a wall wasn’t nearly enough time for her to suffer any more injury.”

“I don’t know much about them. Fury has kept some aspects of the Arcadia operation classified to him alone, such as their identity.” _And other aspects, such as Trolls, only open to the highest levels of SHIELD._

_And Hydra._

“Well, Stark’s given him his toys to play with. Those two suits are Starktech. He shorts most of our soldiers and hands out playthings for some kids to use.” A snort.

“But there might be a way that could be changed.”

“Oh?”

“They’re minors. Have been for their entire career. Taking dangerous chances, either behind their parents’ backs, or with their approval. Neither one…”

“I’m not a babysitter.”

“No, General, but you are someone who could use soldiers. Skilled soldiers with unusual power and who weren’t poached by Fury and Stark for the Avengers. If you could involve Children’s Protective Services in the _right_ way… Well, clearly, military discipline would be good for them, and no matter how they react, it’s not as if you’re dealing with the Hulk.”

At that, his companion twitched. General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross had poor memories of both the Hulk and Stark.

“And what do you have to gain from this? You’re _part_ of SHIELD.”

“Which doesn’t mean I can’t see the benefit of another organization with access to its own resources. Not, of course, that I can be openly supportive.”

“Right, so if it goes badly, I take the fall.”

“I’m certain you’ll be able to handle this.”

“I’ll see.” Ross got up. “I’ve got to make a few calls.”

“Of course, Pierce said.

He didn’t know if Ross would succeed, or if Ross would have another catastrophe to his name.

It actually didn’t matter. Either one benefited Pierce.

And Hydra.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, it's a sequal to Trollhunters Vs. Avengers. A bit more focusing on the Trollhunters here, with only one Avenger making a major appearance, but I thought y'all would like it.


End file.
